senator bob dole was the first one to use the first so-called filling the tree. used it seven times. senator byrd, who never used it, that gag rule to stop the minority from offering amendments, i guess, was disappointed he hadn't thought of it so he found a way to use it three times as he was the majority leader. senator mitchell used it three times, senator lott 11, senator daschle only once this gag rule, senator frist 15. all of those leaders used it 40 times. our majority leader, senator reid has used it 68. so we can all come up with statistics on both sides, but shouldn't we just resolve that what we would like to do, show the country that we're grown-up, responsible adults and we can sit down and say, yes, we can agree on ways to make sure that most bills come to the floor and senators get to offer most of the amendments that they want to offer on the bill? i think we can do that. i think there's a spirit on both sides of the aisle to do that, and i'm working toward that goal, and i know a number of democrats and republicans are doing that. and i apprecia